Jane Henderson

Dragonslippers

by Rosalind B. Penfold

( Penguin Canada,

2005;

$20.00)

FOR a decade, Rosalind B. Penfold (a pseudonym) drew pictures. A heart ripping apart, a naked man juggling women, her own self spun yo-yo-like from a giant hand. Page by page, she created a visual diary of her abusive relationship and then hid each one away in a cardboard box as quickly as she made them.

Years later, she revisited these black-and-white images to create the graphic narrative of Dragonslippers: This Is What an Abusive Relationship Looks Like. Recently released in Canada, the book is scheduled for publication in another nine countries so far.

Dragonslippers follows the arc of the character Rosalind's relationship with the abusive Brian, and her eventual escape.